Tales of the Titans: The Truth
by Nitebreaker
Summary: Ever wonder where Beast Boy's powers REALLY come from? And why he and Raven have such a bond? A one-shot that wouldn't let me alone until I did something with it. Here's the something.
1. Chapter 1

Tales of the Titans: The Truth 

_A one shot that wouldn't let me alone until I did something with it. Here's the something. I don't know if it fits into the continuity of the rest of my stories. See what you think._

Garfield was walking down the hall at Titans' Tower, like he normally did, on his way to his and Terra's room, the room they shared in common. Later on, he'd never be able to say just what prompted him to stop by Raven's door. Somehow, he just knew something was wrong.

Of course, he'd been wrong before. Several times he'd stopped to ask her if anything was wrong, and she would always say, no, no, nothing's wrong, I don't know why you'd ask that. And, of course, he accepted that. After all, he was only human; it was within the bounds of reason that he could be wrong.

But a couple of those times, he'd caught her with reddened eyes, and drying tears on her face. And sniffling.

He started to ring her doorbell, like always, when he heard something that totally changed his mind about the whole "going to the door and knocking" routine: from within, he heard the faintest hiccup of a sob. Just one.

The hell with her knowing he knew her door's combination. He keyed it in, and rushed into the darkened room.

Raven was sitting on her couch, legs drawn up under her, both hands pressed up against her face. The tears flowed freely down her face, through her fingers, dripping onto her upper thighs. He rushed up and sat beside her, putting his arm around her. He could tell she knew he was there; she was just too miserable to even make a show of hiding her feelings. _This has to be bad,_ he thought. "Raven! What's wrong?"

"B-Beast Boy?"

"Hey, Beast Boy's the guy you work with. I'm off the clock. Call me Gar. Now. What's wrong? I've never seen you cry before, Rae."

She sniffled, blowing her nose on a kleenex. "It-it's n-*"

"Don't say 'nothing.'"

She was silent for a time. Then, "Okay. I s-suppose you do know me better than that." Another pause. "Oh, you're gonna hate me!" She fumbled with her Kleenex.

He was taken aback. Hate her? Whaat? "Rae, I could never hate you. I don't care what. It doesn't matter. I don't care if you, if you, if you tell me you're Trigon himself, I still won't hate you. Uh, you're not about to do that, are you?"

"No." He relaxed somewhat. "It-it's not that simple, I'm afraid." He waited. "Garfield. There's—there's something I have to tell you about, about yourself that, that you just aren't going to want to hear. But, but you have to know, before you, before you get married." His ears pricked up at that. Before he got married?

"Alright, Rae," he said, more cautiously, now. "I'm listening."

She wouldn't meet his gaze, instead focusing on her crumpled Kleenex. "Before I begin….what do you know about your parents?"

He shrugged. "They were biologists in Africa. They're the ones who developed the serum—well, treatment, it was more than just chemicals—that changed me into this," and here he gestured to his green self, "and gave me my ability to shapechange. I mean, those are the basics. But Rae, you've known that. Is there something more?"

She nodded. "Quite a bit more. Gar, how many times have you 'just had a feeling' you needed to check on me, or something?"

Again a shrug. "A few. I really haven't kept count. But what's that got to do with me, or me getting married?"

"And do you remember that time when Jillian dumped you?"

"Yeah." His face clouded over. "That was a kinda low time for me. I'm glad you happened to be-* Wait. You knocked on my door not a minute after I got off the phone with her."

"Yes. I don't even remember walking down the hall to your room. I, I just found myself there, and knew, somehow, that you needed someone." She sniffled, and smiled, sadly. "I don't think I was much help…"

"Rae, just you being there was help, all by itself. But what I'm hearing you say, correct me if I'm wrong, is that all that's not just coincidence, is it?"

"No." She squared her shoulders. Time to face the music. "Gar, when my father tried to take over the Earth….you got a pretty good look at him, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Too good. I mean, the guy was, like, _huge_, sitting _on the Tower_ like it was a Laz-E-Boy or something…."

"Gar, what was growing out of his head? Did you notice?"

Garfield was puzzled. "Didn't he have, like, some sticks stuck in his hair or something?"

"Not sticks. Think back, Gar. _Remember._"

Garfield thought hard. Trigon had had _some_thing growing out of his head. "I _definitely_ noticed the four eyes. But….." He thought, half-closing his eyes in memory. "….was I crazy, or did he have, like, _antlers_ growing out of his head?"

"Exactly. Not horns. Most people, when they picture demons, they think of horns. But these…."

"….were antlers. Huh. I never really thought about that before."

She studied her Kleenex. "It's not that uncommon, really. Many demons 'borrow' certain traits from the animal kingdom….actually, the jury is still out as to which came first: whether the demons borrow animal characteristics, or some animals have some demonic characteristics, you can argue it either way-but the point is, he had antlers."

He shrugged again. "Okay. So he had antlers. What does that have to do with—*"

"Do you remember, about a year ago, we were chasing those drug smugglers in Arizona? You turned into a pronghorn antelope to chase them."

"Yeah…."

"What happened when you tried to turn back?"

"I…turned back. No, wait…I turned back, but…..wait. I had a hard time with the, with the…." His voice trailed off.

"With the antlers. They stayed on your human head for a full three minutes. I counted."

"Rae. What exactly are you trying to tell me?"

She turned and looked him in the eyes. Hers were red and puffy. "Garfield….this isn't going to be easy for you. It isn't easy for me, either. But….the truth is, your father…..and my father…

"…were the same." This last was finished in a hushed whisper, almost as if she were really wanting to keep him from hearing her.

He stared for a moment. Then, he burst out laughing. "Oh, good one, Rae! I never even saw it coming! You got me good, there!" Then he stopped. She wasn't laughing. "Rae?"

"It's true, Garfield. We're….siblings. Half-siblings, I mean. That explains how you can morph into animals much larger or much smaller than you. Science doesn't work that way.

"But magic does.

"And that's how we each know when the other's hurting. And why, that time when we switched powers…my powers gravitated to you. And…..a lot of other things." _Including the feelings I've had for you. Incest is a human taboo; demons play—and reproduce—by a different set of rules entirely._

But he was shaking his head. "No, Rae, you're mistaken. I _knew _my parents. Not well, it's true, but….I mean, we have a bond, yeah, but that's nothing all that unusual. It—it doesn't mean…."

She sighed. He was forcing her to do this. "Garfield. This is important. Here. Stand up, and come over here with me, okay?"

"Uhm, sure, Rae. What for?" She moved him over towards the center of her room.

"I just want you to know I'm really sorry about this." And while he was trying to puzzle out what she meant…..

….she slapped him. Full in the face.

To say he was stunned was an understatement. Raven had _never_ hit him before. But this was a full-on, open-handed slap, powered by her whole arm. Raven might not be anywhere near Starfire's strength level, but she was in good physical shape, and that slap _hurt._

"RaVEN! What're you—*" And she hit him again, _Pow!,_ this time from the other side, again powering through the force of the slap, rocking his head in the other direction. She continued slapping him, _hard_, forcing him back, ever back towards the bathroom in her room…

"Raven!" Even through the hailstorm of slaps, the thought occurred to him: _was_ this Raven? Maybe something had crept into her body when she wasn't looking…..

She kept slapping him, making his head ring, until finally, he'd had all he could take. He grabbed her wrists roughly, and roared, "_That's enough!_" Loud enough to rattle the walls.

"Garfield, look at you! Here, turn around, look at yourself in the mirror!" She whirled him around, to where he was facing the mirror in her bathroom, the only mirror she allowed in her room at all, except for her magic mirror…..

…And gasped. There, on his forehead, was another set of eyes, just above his normal pair.

He stared, unbelieving. The eyes were there, red from corner to corner, just like Raven's double set when _she_ got upset. He moved forward into the smallish bathroom, not really wanting to believe what his eyes—both sets—were telling him. He put a hand to his face in shock. He stared for a moment longer, and the extra pair of eyes closed and faded back into his normal—for him—green forehead. He rubbed the area where they'd been. Everything _felt_ normal. It wasn't like he was rubbing eyelids or anything…..

He backed out of the bathroom, all the while keeping one eye on the mirror, as if it were going to suddenly attack him or something. Raven had gone back to sit down on the couch, huddled up, her hood up, her arms wrapped around her as if she were cold. "I had to show you," she said. Her voice sounded drained, like she was exhausted. "You had to know."

He went over and sat down by her, a stunned look on his face. She hunched into herself, as though trying to make herself smaller, somehow. "That's why you had to know now, before you got married. Terra….she'll need to know. I don't know if there'll be any….genetic side effects; maybe not. I mean….I mean, I just don't know." Her voice was the voice of one who'd cried themselves out of tears. She just didn't have any more. But even as she spoke, one single tear dripped down off her nose, and onto her leg. "It's…it's okay if you hate me. I deserve it. But I had to show you, I mean…."

He put his arm around her gently. "Rae. I don't hate you." She looked up, eyes wide in surprise. His eyes—his normal set—were just as full of love as ever. "I could never hate you. Especially now…..sister."

"But…but Terra…..!"

"Terra once told me a secret that she was sure would be the end of us. Now's my turn, I guess. But you know what, Rae? You know what every orphan dreams of? That somewhere, he's got family, family that'll love him and accept him for who he is. And guess what. You've given me that. Tonight." He kissed her on the cheek. "Come what may, I don't think it'll be anything that the two of us—and I hope, the _three_ of us, once Terra finds out—can't handle." He gently removed his arm from around her, leaning forward. "But if Terra can't handle the awful truth….well. I won't lie. It'll hurt, Rae. It'll hurt like hell. But…there's no help for it. I mean, she'd find out, sooner or later. And I love her too much to keep her in the dark about something like this." He stood up. "So. Wanna come with, be my moral support when I tell her?" He offered her his hands.

She took them and stood up, smiling, sniffling, and brushing a strand of hair back into place. It had become tousled in their scuffle. "Alright, I will. But first," and here she led him back into her bathroom, and began fishing out some first-aid supplies she normally kept there, "We gotta get you fixed up." He had a couple of shallow cuts on his face, not to mention a few welts. "Your poor face. I really need to clip my fingernails."


	2. Chapter 2: The Awful Truth

Tales of the Titans: The Truth, Part 2

_I don't own the Teen Titans. If I did, it would probably have to have a mature audience rating or something._

_This one's for you, Walkerjordan963!_

The Awful Truth, Chapter 2

Garfield Logan and Raven halted just outside the door to his and Terra's room. "Ready?" he asked her. She nodded, wordlessly. "Good," he breathed. _Wish I was._ He pushed open the door.

Terra was sitting at the mirror, brushing her hair, wearing only her underwear. "Oh! Raven! Uhm, sorry! I don't usually greet guests like, like this," she said, embarrassed. She crossed her arms in front of herself. She didn't have a robe to put on.

"It's—it's alright, Terra. I won't be long, in any case." She looked at Gar.

"Terra, honey, uh, uhm, Raven and I have something to tell you.…..maybe you better sit down." Then, "Maybe we _all_ better sit down."

"'_Raven _and I'?" Terra sat on the bed, one eyebrow cocked, with Garfield beside her. Raven sat in the overstuffed chair by the bed. Garfield wondered, to himself, if he'd be sleeping in _that_ tonight. Or sleeping alone, one of the two. Most probably the latter.

Terra was still clearly a bit embarrassed at being only half-dressed in Raven's presence, but the sorceress reassured her that it really wasn't anything to be all that concerned about. She didn't tell her this, but when Starfire first came to live with them, she'd had the disconcerting habit of walking around the Tower's corridors completely nude, to the guilty pleasure of every male in the group. It had taken her a long time to understand that it was considered _polite_ to wear clothes _indoors_ as well as outdoors. Tameranean customs were very different, after all; clothes were primarily for protection from the elements, yes? Why wear them indoors and get them all dirty? And Raven had, in a pre-emptive strike, also instructed her that sexual matters were not to be discussed in the presence of the group, or where members of the group might hear. "Girl talk"—in private-was one thing, talking with your lover in private (and even way back then, Raven had had a pretty good idea who _that_ would be)—but not in public.

Beast Boy turned, addressing Terra. "Well, it's…..y'see….I don't quite know how to put this, but it turns out that Raven and I, well….."

It might have been Raven's imagination, but it seemed that Terra tensed, somewhat, and the nervous smile on her face disappeared altogether. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ever so slightly. "_Yes_, Gar?"she prompted, but, to Raven's sensitive ears, it was in a totally different tone of voice.

A _dangerous_ tone of voice.

Garfield didn't seem to notice, struggling as he was, with how to put what he was going to have to say. "Well, it's just, we've discovered something…."

"_Have_ you, now?"

"Yeah, and it _could_ be a…a _problem_…between you and I."

"_Could_ it?" Raven was beginning to be alarmed. Something was wrong; the tension in the room was getting thicker, not lesser, as she'd supposed. "I….I mean, to say, we…."

Terra moved slightly away from him, crossing one leg up on the bed, propping her chin up on her fist, and giving him a very hard stare. "_Yes_, Garfield? _Do_ continue. _Please._"

"I…we….and please understand, I just now found this out…"

"Mm-_h_mm?" The tension was thick enough by now that Raven was actually beginning to think it impeded her movements, as if the room were full of invisible molasses or something. What could be causing it? True, Garfield was fumbling around all over the place, trying the find the exact right words, but even so, just being able to detect the building tensions didn't necessarily mean she knew what was causing them….

"It's just that we're, I mean, she and I, well, what I'm trying to say is…." Terra was dangerously silent. Finally, there was just no more waiting. The words had to come. "We're siblings!" he blurted.

"Siblings?" Terra's face registered shock for a moment. But only for a moment. Then she did the one thing neither of the other two had foreseen.

She laughed.

Not just quiet chuckles, or even girly giggles, but great, hearty guffaws, that had her rolling around on the bed, holding her sides. "You, you…." Then she started laughing some more. Tears were running down the side of her face, as she rolled back and forth across the bed, holding her sides.

"It's true, Terra, we're, well, we're actually _half_-siblings, I mean, we had the same father, Trigon, but not the same mother…..Terra, I mean it! I'm not joking!"

By now, Terra had herself more under control. She was still quietly laughing to herself, unable to make a coherent reply. "You….you….and her…oh, hahahahaha!" She went back to laughing uncontrollably.

Garfield looked helplessly at Raven, who shrugged. She didn't know what was going on, either.

Finally, she seemed to have laughed herself out, and lay back on the bed, on her back, with her legs hanging from the knee down towards the floor, arms over her head. "Oh, my god. And here I thought….I mean, I thought you were gonna tell me….you were gonna tell me….that you and she…well, never mind what I thought you were gonna tell me. It isn't important."

"Well, I mean, it's true. I just found out, myself, that-*"

"I know."

"—that apparently, somehow, my father was….wait. What'd you say?

"I know, Gar. I've known for about a year now."

Both Raven and Garfield were staring at her in open-mouthed shock. "You know," said Garfield, "You _knew?_"

"Yeah." She sat up, flipping her hair back over her head. It had become somewhat tousled during her laughing fit.

"B-but _how?_"

Terra pulled one knee up to her chin, sobering. "Do you remember—and I know you do—about a year ago, the cops called us in on that missing girl report?"

It was amazing, thought Raven, how Gar's expression actually _darkened_. It was as if a cloud had come over his face, except there was nothing over his head to account for it. He sat on the side of the bed, leaning forward, hands clasped in front of him. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"I bet you do. I had the sniffles that day, and Cyborg thought I might be coming down with the flu, but it turned out it was just sinuses, remember? So I didn't go with the rest of you. But, Gar…..you guys didn't get to her in time, remember?"

Gar didn't say anything, but his expression spoke volumes.

"I'd never seen you so angry. It actually scared me a little. And you started pacing. Back and forth, back and forth. Just like that guy, Darth Maul, in that movie. Not saying anything, but just pacing. I think you were getting angrier by the minute. Remember? I didn't know what to say, what to do. I'd never seen _any_body like that before." He nodded. "About the third or fourth pace, you turned around—and I almost jumped out of my skin. You didn't notice, 'cause you were too worked up. But that was the reason why: I saw the four-eye thing. Didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the rest, you know."

He looked at her. "And you've known…all this time?"

She turned around and clasped his body between her legs, drawing him in, her mouth close to his ear. Raven was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable. "You remember that night, that _special_ shower we had?"she purred. He stirred a bit, clearly remembering _that_, too.

"Uh, maybe I'd better go…."said Raven, starting to get up.

"You can stay, Raven. You're family now, anyway. No secrets." She bent her mouth towards her lover's ear again. "Third base, darling. It brought you back, didn't it? AND paid you back for that wonderful night _you _gave _me _just before you ran off to rescue Little Miss Suburban Princess Tara."

"But—but, I'm part demon!"

"Well, let's see," she said, drawing back just a little, "Two possibilities here: one, you have magic powers. The other: you were exposed to a treatment, when you were little more than a baby, that so scrambled your genes, that even _they_ can't decide what you are. Which one do you _think_ I'd prefer you have? Especially if you add the _distinct possibility_ of children into the mix.

"And," she went on, "I wasn't here then, but I heard the others talking about it: that night Slade came for Raven with those fire demons: that 'beast' form of yours was tearing them up, right and left. Honey, nothing made of Earthly flesh can take on a thing made of fire or molten lava and come out on top. But you did. To save your own flesh and blood." She nodded with her head towards Raven, who was still sitting there, the remnants of a blush on her face. "And the only time you ever turned into that beast was: whenever you felt Raven was in danger. The _only_ time. Then you go positively, well, _primal_." Raven started at bit at that. She'd never actually seen it that way. But now that she thought about it, it fit, it made sense.

"So you've known. All this time. And you never said anything?"

"What could I have said?"

"Uhm." He rubbed the side of his face. "Good point." Then, "Say. Waitaminnit. What was it you _thought_ I was gonna say, back when you were giving me all those looks?"

"Oh, that." She shuddered. "I was afraid—no, I was _terrified _that you were gonna say that Raven had beat you in a game of tiddlywinks. I just couldn't have _handled_ that. I mean, that would've been," and here she paused, hugging herself, an expression of anguish on her angelic face, "I mean, like, absolutely _horrible._"

Garfield and Raven looked at each other:_ what?_

_The End_


End file.
